Lighthouse @ Martha’s Vineyard

Showing the light to the world

Long time…

Yeah, I finished my marathon. Running is fun. Running a marathon – lot of fun, except you dont want to do it;-)

Long time, since I blogged. Guess bored with this new tool. Trying to figure out how so to manage so many communication channels – emails/phones/blogs/scraps. Letters anyone?

Long time I got a cold too. Now that explains why I am sitting before a comp and putting stuff on my blog for a change.

New things in life, an Onkyo 6.1 home theater system – all setup, needs a good DVD to test. TV is pathetic transmission to split into 6.1 channels.

Lastly, long time I have been to India.  I need a life!

I will run again, I will Run For India!

 

अयं निज: परो वेति गणना लघुचेतसाम्

उदारमनसानां तु वसुधैव कुटुंबकम्

English Translation of the Sanskrit quote:

This is mine or (somebody) else’s (is the way) narrow minded people count. But for broad minded people, (whole) earth is (like their) family.

I am not a runner, nor did I ever dream that I will run a marathon – not even in my wildest dreams. But, things change – no, I am not a runner yet! Last year, Oct 8th an earthquake stuck Kashmir. It is a hot topic – not the earthquake but Kashmir. Everyone talked but not many worked on it nor did they contribute to it. So I decided to walk the talk, no actually run – I ran a marathon to raise awareness about the plight of people in Kashmir and that contributions are sorely required. I raised some funds and I know they were put to good use. http://sahyadri.aidindia.org/content/category/24/124/144/

That was last year. With the newfound confidence that I can run a marathon, I thought I should do it again this year. Not so easy. I ran 18 miles day before yesterday, and I am still sore. And the reasoning is the same….I am not a big fan of running then WHY? Why on earth go through this torture?

Well the answer is always simple. I love to volunteer my time with AID. That is no secret. I think, we are making a positive difference. And I see one particular program as making a lot of change. No – I don’t run that program neither do I control that program. That – is the first thing you learn, that you need to unlearn a LOT. An idea that you could be wrong!

So what is the program I am talking about? I am talking about the AID Jeevansaathi program. 6 AID volunteers in the US, quit their jobs and careers and headed back to India to do full time social work at different points of time in the last few years. In the truest spirit of the quote above, these young friends have been working tirelessly with the people who need to be developed the most in India! You can read all about them here: http://saathi.aidindia.org/new/

We, in AID give them a small honorarium so that they can concentrate on the change they are bringing about on the ground! This is the smallest thing we could do. And here I give you a chance to participate in the biggest change for India! Donate to our jeevansaathi fund and enable our friends to bring about the change! Change for the better, change that is visible.

Donate securely and generously and show your encouragement for my effort! Either of our efforts go a long way in ensuring our vision of a developed India: thanks to the Jeevansaathis! And I will run, for India!

Donate Securely – Click Here

After you donate, send this mail or this link to your friends and family!

http://www.runforindia.org/runners/rajasekhar

Powerless in USA!

Well….if the power goes out in India, you are guaranteed it wont return for a few hours.
In the US, there is no guarantee. It might come back the next second or might not come back for a few days (yeah seen those bad days too, and no, I dont live in the Hamptons). The fun is when you use electric stoves! Nothing to eat, no gas station can fill up an empty tank without power, you cant walk 10 miles and even if you do, you may find the place closed – what do you eat?

Seriously – so much of life in this country depends on electricity. I should learn to stock up some junk food for such unreliable outages.

Anyway, so yesterday the power went off. Was poking fun at an ad, which had this person throwing a power switch on and off and not knowing what was switching on or off. Similar thing happened – in about 15 minutes, the power came and went for 20 times. This was after a powercut of 3 hrs.

So what do you do when the power goes off? No tv, no computer, no internet, no email. Luckily my cell phone was working and had some charge. So I figured out how to dial my parents with just one addressbook entry. Yeah, no brainer – but yesterday was the time I could find to do that! Seriously send in suggestions on what to do, when you dont have electricity!

GMail ROCKS!

Well,
1. Save chat!
2. Chat from the browser:)
And this is so cool. God knows what they are using underneath – it doesnt sound like the Java IM yahoo had once upon a time or still has (that made my computer scream – why are you doing this to me?!). Who uses yahoo anymore? And this feature seems cool…..off the record!

Of course there are many other things about gmail I love…. I would like to have one more feature. Different signatures for different from addresses. I am not sure why people havent thought about it….but I would prefer to have a different signature for different email addresses I use. And hence not sit and edit my signature after it is already added!

Read more on the google blog.

I am telling you…

I am telling you …. this is the conspiracy of Pakistan cricket board!
The first two test match pitches were rigged to get no result. And the third one a grass top to kill Indians!
That way Pakistan will win the match and hence the series.

Any bets?

On another note….everyone is calling to remove Ganguly that he is not performing. Then why not ask Tendulkar to be dropped too?

Sania Mirza got the Padma Shri. The confusing part is – what are these awards….are they for individual achievements or wearing the Indian cap?! I also dont understand how a nationality became important in the tennis opens? Except for Davis cup or Olympics most of the tennis tournaments dont have anything to do with the country from which the player is!

In the same light, BCCI doesnt also have the sole right (or does it…was their any change recently??) to use Indian colors on cricketers. It shouldnt have. Such a crappy organization, no good for either cricket nor for India cant have this. But this in itself can be a LOOOOT longer post.

Returning to the tennis kid from my hometown, I dont know her talents, never seen her play….but hate the number of unforced errors she makes! All said, I totally support this kid. Well if nothing she carries the aspirations of 450 million women folk of India. And some men like me.

The most outrageous comparison I ever hear is comparing her to Tendulkar – both by media and hence hated by a lot of others. How can you compare her to Tendulkar? He is so talented, she has done nothing nor is she talented.
Now that is being unfair to her. Tendulkar inspired a bunch of people to try out the bat and ball….well he at least got lazy bums like me to follow cricket. All said and done, cricket is still badly riddled with more politics and talent rather than hardwork or even fitness! So much for him. Not a consistent batsman in the team, except for Dravid in the past 3 years. This is the result?

On the opposite note – Sania Mirza, probably inspired by Tendulkar, takes on a different sport and tries to excel – what is wrong? She needs to be encouraged. Hey at least she consistently reached second round in all grand slams last year! I wish she be Number 1 someday. Even if she isnt, I hope she continues where she is for a couple of years. She will go a long way in raising not just the aspirations of women in India but also boost their confidence and we can expect more sportswomen. Till then, let us cheer the odd Sania out of the billion we are!

And mind you, dont even call cricket a religion in India? Who celebrates when the Indian eves do better than their male counterparts in cricket? Only them and their families probably. So much for cricket as a religion. Call Tendulkar a religion….no problemo!

Fun….

Search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN.

So, whiling away sometime I am trying to have some fun with these search engines. Seeing how their english is compared to mine and etc etc. MSN is the funniest! I am browsing from a sun workstation, and using firefox – suddenly I notice MSN has a link DESKTOP on the search bar itself. Google doesnt have one nor does yahoo. So I thought I will search using the desktop link…..Sure they think everyone in the world uses MS only. Click that link and you will be taken to “Download MSN Free” for windows only!

We know microsoft – they love to love themselves. I didnt want to stay back either. Another funny thing about the MSN search. It has two buttons – one local (Beta) and another Near Me! I dont know what is the difference. Moreover why is one in Beta and another not?

I heard Virtual Earth is good. It truly believes the world is flat! Or probably all these coders read Thomas Friedman!! Oh come on MS – do better!

Ubuntu and Intelligent Design

Woke up my laptop from hibernation – it had slept for long and decided to try something different. Redhat was boring – 3 CDs to install. Who would take the pains? Saw a copy of Ubuntu 5.10 lying around. So popped it in. It is nice, sleek and has fortune! What else do I want?

So started playing around with various utilities….realized one by one many things are still broken. Fine, that is what is open source. Cant sink my palm with it, cant run wireless …. well the wireless card is one of the oldest… probably can make a lot of money for its vintage value….Got DVDs and CDs to play right. Can mount and unmount USB devices easily. And then it gets tricky – I hate those who make devices which need specific drivers for USB? USB was supposed to get rid of this precise problem.

And while I browse the news section I noticed, the Intelligent Design judgement. Going to be fun watching O’Reilly tonite!

From the first long run to the long run!

So started in Sep 1st week, all would have been fine if I had run with the marathon trainers on a regular basis. But committments on saturdays to many other things….this wasnt easy. Sep 24th – was anti-war protest/peace march in DC, in the evening was Amjad Ali Khan concert….so well no running the capitol 20miler on 25th Sep. Oct 8th was Shobana’s concert …. and the next two weeks were spent on that….apart from regular work. And bam – we go back home from Shobana’s concert – to yet another sad news – an earthquake in Kashmir. Sadness again.

Of course, the very next weekend of my first long run in early sep, I knew I wont be able to run Baltimore Half-Marathon. Marine corp marathon doesnt have a half-marathon. Nevertheless I went to practise for a long run, the runners planned and successfully finished 14.1 miles. A week later, I went to run again….this was a taper down run….8miles. I quit after a mile, because I didnt know why to run. I could do a lot many things than run…

And it turned out, instead of running, I found a spot for the marathon….a week later. I might get a confirmed slot on monday or tuesday. And there you … I jumped on it and took it up. All along, I had been working with groups trying to reach to survivors in Kashmir earthquake. The response from people at large, who are really passionate about Kashmir but didnt do much for the survivors hurt me – I took up the challenge. I had made promises to keep, long before I go to sleep…. It was unbelievable. Some were shocked, some were mad and many thought I was crazy. But I ran…not for me, I hope I got a couple of smiles back to faces in Kashmir… I hope I achieved what I started out for…till then the medal I got is useless.

And the best part …. friday before the marathon … all the runners and friends in our sweet time, decided to go for dinner …. well Brunda found a job in NJ and was moving out….so, we went for dinner….came back at midnight and then watched sholay …. at 4am we slept….any of our coaches knew this before the marathon….they would have been mad! With less than 32hrs from the marathon – we are watching sholay instead of sleep!!!

But who cares….we did it

From the MCRC…to running my first long run

So I started. I could hardly run 0.1 miles, till my room mate told me not to run as hard as I was trying to. He mad me run a mile non-stop. A big achievement. I was running on some ugly running shoes….I hardly ran two miles, I hurt myself badly. By then I had decided I would bike instead of run.

So for the next one month or so, I would bike along with the runners. I biked some 20 miles on weekend runs, shuttling between runners, giving them water and gatorade. Of course discarded my old running shoes as soon as I got hurt. Boy did that hurt – dont know the technical terms but never will I run with those shoes again.

I went to a running shoe store, where I was told that – running shoes should have space so that your foot can expand in the run. And for my foot pattern, I needed some stablity shoes….whatever that meant. Essentially I have high arches and I needed support for them. So there you $80 for the shoes.

At times I tried to run with these folks on tuesdays and thursdays. These were the strength building runs and the speed runs. Sort of builds up stamina. I was planning to run at least 4miles with one of the folks on the marathon day.

Come september long weekend, I planned to go on a long run with the folks. For heaven’s sake these people ran on the long weekend – talk about committment! And so did I – for a little over 2hrs. Totally tired and totally elated! In hindsight, probably this was the most tiring run!